momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Christian Pèes.It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulationof agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.

The pig farming crisis: worse to come

September 28, 2015

Space 2015 (The International Livestock Trade Fair) ended on 18th September and not without tension. This much awaited fair seems to have set the tone for the coming months: the agricultural crisis is not about get better. The dairy market is still doing badly and the crisis has currently reached beyond European borders. Canada is worried about its farmers’ survival; Fonterra has meanwhile announced new job cuts.

The situation is equally worrying and explosive for the pig farming industry, already weakened by structural failures (loss of competitiveness, loss of farms, unsustainable competition) and since 2008, it has been greatly affected by the hyper-volatility of agricultural prices and the soaring cost of food.

With the exception of Spain (whose progress is linked to the development of integrated production), Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Germany are expecting the loss of some of their pig farms due to price drops of around 10% in one year. Even the UK is putting pressure on French farmers’ margins, William Roue, president of the Inter-professional Pork Commission (INAPORC) has announced that 10% of farms will not survive the crisis with another 10% under threat.

This crisis is linked to lower consumption and overproduction in Europe, and particularly the Russian embargo that has lasted half a year. So, according to Stéphane le Foll, due to the closure of the Russian market, there are between 100 000 and 150 000 tonnes of additional pork currently on the European market. Can the solution be found in Moscow? Xavier Beulin and Jean Bizet, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee at the Senate has just been and Stéphane le Foll will go there in October, but nothing currently allows us to predict a lifting of the embargo. Today all eyes are on Brussels and the Member States who will attend to their agricultural sectors, including the pork sector, according to national choices.

From Brussels, the support measures for the European livestock sector put forward by Phil Hogan on 7th and 15th September are however far from adequate despite the implementation of a new private pork storage mechanism.

We are currently witnessing the dismantling of European institutions led by the ever more ultra-liberal Commission. What options are left to the pork sector and European agriculture as a whole if the founding principles of the CAP and the EU are being phased out? In summary, “can we develop a pork industry in France or in Europe without a framework?” asked recently Paul Auffray, President of the National Pork Federation.

European agriculture without a framework and a dismantled CAP will only worsen the effects of agricultural crises. Consequently, without a strategic vision adapted to the reality of global agricultural markets the entire European agricultural edifice is doomed.